Home grown fuel

[Mark R. Obtinario]

Hi all,

I came across this website (http://www.oilcrusher.5u.com/) and thought I would share it with you.

If it is as it is stated, $1.00 per gallon fuel is a very good price to pay.

I think alternatives to foreign oil are out there at affordable prices. The problem I see is bringing those fuels to market. I am thinking Big Oil and others have a very large vested interest in seeing those fuels never become readily available to the general public.

But I have been wrong before...

Mark O.
Castle Rock, WA

[Phil Feinstein]

His science is a bit shaky, but I can't fault him on his scientific method. He mentions Methanol as being used for Bio-diesel conversion, but Ethanol can also be used and made in small batches. He's also neglected the use of Sodium or Potassium Hydroxide in the bio-diesel conversion.

Good stuff. He doesn't have enough hard data in his website to support his claims even though he goes to great length to detail his process. My biggest question is: does he factor in labor and the cost of equipment into that $1 figure? The phone numbers are legit in TARGUS, so I guess you can call him.

[Sharkey]

I've said it before, I'll say it again, put WVO/SVO through your engine today, suffer the consequences tomorrow. There's a reason that ASTM-approved biodiesel has the glycerin removed, and it isn't because the processors want less power in the fuel. Glycerin is BAD for diesel engines. It burns incompletely and leaves behind ash and varnish deposits, and causes motor oil to polymerize, effectively gluing the various engine components (especially piston rings) into a solid mass. Nothing short of sand blasting or machining can remove this varnish.

No one whom I know who was using WVO/SVO is doing so any longer, even my friend Justin who runs a business converting cars to run on it.

Additionally, putting glycerin through an internal combustion engine produces carcinogenic acrylein gas, so not only is it killing your engine, it's killing you as well.

And I won't even get started on the folly of putting gasoline into a modern diesel engine.

Getting off the oil titty is important, but doing so in a clean and responsible manner is integral to the concept.

[Phil Feinstein]

Adding Gas didn't seem fishy to me because I've seen bio-fuel advocates add Ethanol as an anti-gel to bio-diesel. Gasoline is rated in "Octane" and diesel is rated in "Cetane" (although the Alkane standard is actually Hexadecane).

Here's the problem: A higher Octane number means the fuel is less resistant to ignition from compression. A higher Cetane number means the fuel is EASIER to ignite under compression. When you have a diesel engine, you want a high Cetane rated fuel and adding Gasoline would act to LOWER the Cetane value.

Even if adding Gasoline negates the effect of Glycerin in the fuel, you're lowering the Cetane number and creating more soot and VOC output by using a fuel that's harder to ignite under compression. It's counter intuitive.

It would be very interesting to see what the real world implications of this guy's technique both in motor longevity and emissions output. He doesn't seem to want to put much more analysis into that half as opposed to showing how brilliant he was to come up with the idea in the first place. Check out a Wiki on Cetane number here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cetane_number

[Mark R. Obtinario]

Sharkey,

Since you have experimented more with alternative fuels more than anyone else I know, would you please explain the properties of glycerin for me. Specifically, what is glycerin and how does it appear in fuel made from sunflowers.

Since what I know about WVO/SVO I can pretty much write on my palm with a crayon perhaps you could go through a basic primer of WVO/SVO. And most importantly, how WVO/SVO differs from biodiesel.

I thought I knew something about WVO/SVO but obviously what I thought I knew wasn't the straight scoop.

In any case, your words of wisdom on this issue are greatly appreciated.

Mark O.
Castle Rock, WA

[Sharkey]

Without going into a lot of detail that you can find elsewhere, here's the short answer:

Vegetable oil in it's raw form is composed of molecular chains of fatty acids (ester) and glycerol (sugar alcohol). Exposing the oil to a solution of alcohol such as methanol (from natural gas) or ethanol (grain alcohol), and a strong base (potassium or sodium hydroxide [lye]) results in the chains of molecules "unsnapping" or disconnecting from one another. The glycerin, being heavier, sinks to the bottom of the reaction vessel, and the ester, composing about 80% of the volume floats to the top and is harvested as fuel with only a minimum of further processing (heating and washing with water to remove the alcohol and perhaps some pH correction with an acid to neutralize any unreacted lye).

The result is pure Biodiesel. It's pretty hard to mess it up, even garage brewers can crank out ASTM grade fuel using basic tools.

People who run SVO/WVO say "Why bother removing the glycerin?" and simply filter the raw oil and drive on it. I've already expounded on my thoughts on that subject. I also don't have any stomach for digging around in nasty, smelly grease dumpsters to get the raw materials.

It's possible to make Biodiesel from nearly any fatty oil, all grain and bean crops, palm oil, squashed hogs, turkeys, fish, etc, even algae. Not all sources make the best fuel, though. A 100 million-gallon-per-year plant recently opened in Gig Harbor, WA, processing imported palm oil. Problem is, Biodiesel made from palm oil is a solid at room temperature, making it a bit difficult to use in automobiles. The product the plant makes is intended to be a replacement for bunker oil in industrial plants, and I hear that they have a fat contract supplying cruise ships, which are effectively floating factories, and can keep the fuel tanks heated with live steam 24/7 to maintain the fuel in a liquid state.

Some time back we had quality problems from some turkey fat Biodiesel we purchased from World Energy. Many of our customers had fuel filter plugging issues, and we ended up paying quite a tidy sum out of pocket for repairs to not only passenger cars, but some long-haul diesel trucks in fleet service that were stranded from filter problems. World Energy didn't make good on the fuel, dispite the ASTM certification, saying that it was intended to be blended with petroleum diesel, and not used in concentrations greater than 20%. We got bit big time on that one, another reason that we are expanding our production facility to 5 million gallons. Better control of the finished product.

We see a lot of confusion between SVO/WVO and real Biodiesel in the general public, a perception that most media coverage doesn't address adequately. We also find that most media likes to play up Biodiesel users as oddities and quirky tree huggers, attempting to capitalize on the "human interest" angle and usually succeeding in making users look like misfits of society. It has been a long haul to build a company that has mainstream recognition, but each day brings us closer to "normalcy" in the realm of motor fuel creation and consumption.